Melia
Melia Antiqua '(メリア エンシェント, ''Meria Enshento, '''Melia Ancient; English dub: ) is one of the seven playable characters in Xenoblade Chronicles and is part of the High Entia race. She is a powerful mage who lives in the Royal City of Alcamoth prior to the game's events. Her true age is unknown in the game, though her brother is 151 years old. The art book "Xenoblade: The Secret File" reveals her age to be 88 years. Her arts focus on summoning elemental spirits and ether magic. She becomes the leader of the High Entia after Sorean dies. She is partial to polite and formal behaviour, though does not seem to mind Riki calling her Melly (Melia-chan). She also has a secret crush on Shulk, something she admits only to Sharla. Melia has the highest accuracy out of all the playable characters in the game. She also has the lowest HP out of the characters. Melia is the only playable character that has a known last name, Antiqua. Story Melia is first seen fighting a large flying creature, later revealed to be the Leone Telethia, accompanied by four knights called Aizel, Hogard, Garan, and Damil. The knights are killed and Melia left unconscious and on the verge of death in Makna Forest. When Shulk and his friends find her, Sharla diagnoses that she is suffering from ether depletion. In order to save her, they have to gather pure ether crystals. Shulk heads to the Great Makna Falls to gather them and is attacked by Telethia spawn. Upon Shulk's return, Sharla revives Melia by shooting the ether crystals near her body. Melia refuses to explain her reason for being in Makna Forest, but decides to accompany them temporarily and leads them to Frontier Village. When Shulk mentions his battle with the Telethia, Melia is surprised and refuses to believe in Shulk's visions. Only after defeating the Telethia and avenging her fallen allies does she come to accept his power. After returning to Frontier Village, Melia decides to officially join the group and they continue on to Eryth Sea. Upon the group's arrival in Alcamoth, it is revealed that Melia is High Entia royalty and the Emperor's chosen successor. In order to prove her worth, she is sent to perform an ancient High Entia trial in the High Entia Tomb. After defeating the challenges, Melia is deemed worthy and speaks with the forefathers. She receives their blessing for the throne of the High Entia in spite of her half-Hom ancestry. Noting her success, an assassin hired by the Emperor's first consort attempts to kill Melia, but is thwarted by Shulk's group. Abilities Melias' abilities are based upon Ether Arts, being a mage-like character. Her Talent Art effectively uses the elementals she has summoned to attack. Initially she can summon Flare (which will buff the strength of all around her), Aqua (which gives everyone the Regenerate Status) and Bolt (which gives everyone near her an Ether boost), but learns more as she gains levels. Every released summon (to attack an enemy) fills her Talent Gauge, allowing her to enter Element Burst state when maxed and granting access to some powerful abilities, as well as doubling damage caused. Similarly, she also has a few spells that cause statuses on enemies. She can inflict Sleep using a special hypnosis spell, and Bind the foes' movement. General Stats ※ These stats are raw and do not include the bonuses from the skill lines. * each element discharge adds 10% to her talent gauge * can buff battle members with the summoned elements * can debuff and inflict high ether damage to enemies by discharging summoned elements or using ether arts * can double ether damage during elemental burst * can use talent arts during chain attacks that will guarantee a successive chain attack multiplier on the next turn Art List Many of Melia's arts provide a buff when summoned and do damage when released. This is noted thus in the list below: (group buff when summoned | damage when released) * Elemental Discharge Art (attack with a summoned elemental) * Summon Bolt (grants Ether Up | causes electric damage) * Summon Flare (grants Strength Up | causes blaze damage to all enemies around the target) * Summon Ice (reduces Ether damage | causes chill damage to all enemies around Melia) * Hypnotise (puts an enemy to sleep) * Spear Break (throws back and slows an enemy, close range) * Shadow Stitch (Binds enemies in a circle around Melia) * Summon Copy (resummon the last summoned elemental) * Reflection (reflects enemy attacks except Talent Arts) * Summon Wind (grants Agility Up | inflicts area damage around the target) * Summon Earth (reduces physical damage | inflicts poison) * Summon Aqua (grants Regenerate | drains HP from one enemy) * Healing Gift (sacrifices HP to heal a party member) * Starlight Kick (forces Topple when used after Spear Break) * Power Effect Aura (doubles range of elemental auras) * Burst End (reduces physical and Ether defence of enemies in range, only available during Element Burst) * Mind Blast (removes enemy auras and inflicts Art Seal, only available during Element Burst) Initial Skill Trees Melia initially has access to three skill trees: "Serenity", "Honesty", and "Reliability". Additional Skill Trees Melia's fourth Skill Branch "Reticence" can be acquired at Eryth Sea via Trouble at the Lighthouse and has the following prerequisites: * High Entia Tomb clear * Trouble at the Plant completed * Punish the Hodes completed * Mend the Plant completed * Hode Attack completed Melia's fifth Skill Branch "Passion" can be acquired from Ancient High Entia Mystery given by Talia at the Ether Plant at Eryth Sea and has the following prerequisites: * Mechonis Core cleared * Talia's Research or Investigating Satorl completed * The Imperial Ceremony completed Presents 3 Hearts * Dobercorgi (Animal; Colony 6 - Trade: overtrade with Gorman in Colony 6) 2 Hearts * Amethyst Melon (Fruit; Sword Valley) * Doomsday Poppy (Flower; Eryth Sea - Trade: Arielle and Vol'aren in Alcamoth, 1*) * Mystic Dahlia (Flower; Alcamoth) * Spirit Clematis (Flower; Colony 6 - Trade: Anna in Colony 6, 1*) * Forget-You-Not (Flower; Satorl Marsh) * Night Lily (Flower; Eryth Sea - Trade: Popipo and Ma'crish in Alcamoth, 1*) * Chimera Rabbit (Animal; Satorl Marsh) * Venom Platypus (Animal; Satorl Marsh) * Prism Centipede (Animal; Central Factory) * Purple Lamp (Parts; Sword Valley) * Rumble Box (Strange; Frontier Village) * Steel Silk (Strange; Tephra Cave) Tips and Tricks * All of the summon arts are stackable: for example, having three Water elements summoned will triple the regeneration effect. Summon Copy can be used to easily stack the effect. * Most of Melia's ether attacks are AoE. AI Melia will not use AoE attacks against a single target unless commanded by the party leader (press Z+A to activate AoE arts). The condition is identical for Spear Break and Starlight Kick combo. Arts such as Reflection and Hypnotize will only be used when AI Melia has aggro ring. * A common and effective all-around Elemental setup to have is either Ice or Earth (whichever attribute the enemy uses most), Wind (Agility), and your lead offensive element. * Up to three elements can be summoned, and Discharge will apply to the last one summoned: if you want to keep a particular element in play, summon it first, and then keep summoning and discharging other elements on top of it. * Under normal difficulty, Melia can topple enemies easily by using 2 of her arts (Spear break & Starlight Kick), so she works well with characters that can Daze enemies quickly, like Reyn and Sharla (Shulk's Shaker Edge requires some timing). * Though Melia and Riki appear to inflict the same status effects on enemies, each maintains a separate debuff effect, so there is no redundancy in their abilities to inflict damage over time. * The buff effect of Summon Earth is considered the same buff effect as the Physical Protect gem and will stack linearly with it. With a perfect gem, a Buff Time Plus gem, and all three buff slots filled with earth elementals, it is possible to obtain up to 95% resistance to physical damage for the whole party until the gem's effect wears off. Summon Ice works the same way with Ether Protect gems. It is also possible to use skill links that grant a certain physical or ether protect to get even higher. (up to a theoretical 120% though it probably stops at 100%) * Applying several damage over time status effects with Melia and Riki to a group of enemies and then casting Shadow Stitch and running out of range will allow you to deal enormous amounts of damage with no fear of retaliation as well as allowing time for your cooldowns to tick. * If you ever see a vision that you don't like, Melia can use Hypnotise or Mind Blast to sometimes change the result. She can also change visions for both Physical and Ether attacks with a well timed Reflection. * Once Melia obtains the Heavyweight Expert skill (2nd skill in Reticence Tree) it is recommended to have her use heavy armor through a skill link, preferably Dunban's as it only costs a mere 15 Affinity Coins. Not only will this give Melia the superior physical and ether defense of heavy armor, but with her Heavyweight Expert skill she will gain an additional 150 ether defense (30 ether defense for each part). With this in mind, the Heavy set that takes the greatest advantage of this while still allowing free gemming is the Rex set or the 3 slotted Ledios parts. Ledios Arms and Ledios Cuiss have more overall stats than their Rex counter parts. Ledios Plate, however, is there to give a good look overall. All Ledios parts have more physical defense than their Rex counterparts. Rex has more ether defense than Ledios counterparts. * When Melia's talent gauge is full and enters the "Element Burst" state, it counts as an aura and will over and negate her "Power Effect" aura if it is already activated. ** As the "Element Burst" state counts as an aura, Melia's aggro will be reduced by 30% if she has already unlocked her "Arcane Aura" skill in the Reticence tree. Quotes * "The head! Shoot him in the head!" * "Star searing flames of absolution! * "Summon FLARE!" * "Water! The source of all life!" * "Manifest yourself!" * "Summon BOLT!" * "Summon AQUA!" * "Feel darkness blacker than midnight!" * "I feel the Ether flowing through me!" * "BURST END!" * "Witness my true power!" * "Aha! A weak spot!" * "I see your strength is the genuine article!" * "Oppose me and your destruction is inevitable!" * "My thanks." * Melia: "Riki, may I please stroke your soft fur?" Riki: "Melly always welcome!" Reyn: "Me too please!" * Riki: "Melly, Riki try really hard! You see it?" Melia: "Of course, you sweet thing! Who's a brave boy?" Shulk: "Melia, are you feeling okay?" * "Is this all you're capable of?!" * "Hm...A rather advantageous position!" '' * ''"Now, healing aqua!" * "Now! STARLIGHT KICK!" * "None can oppose us." * "Bravo, oh bravo" * "Accept this gift of healing" * "By my flesh and blood, be healed!" * "My strength is fading..." * "How rude!" * "But we cannot be reckless!" * "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Apparently." * "Your fighting spirit is mine!" * "SPEAR BREAK, hah" * "En garde!" * "This is the power of the EARTH" * "Poison EARTH!" * "Summon COPY!" * "REFLECTION manifest" * "Good night..." * "Summon WIND!" * "Summon ICE!" * "Follow my lead!" * "Acknowledged" Trivia * Melia is also the name of a species family of plants that the Chinaberry Tree belongs to. * Her last name, Antiqua, means old/ancient in Latin. * Jenna Coleman, who voiced Melia, went on to play the role of Clara Oswald in the Doctor Who series. * According to the Heart-to-Heart "A Breathtaking Sight", Melia explains to Reyn that when she was young, she fell off the Sky Terrace of Alcamoth's Imperial Palace and survives, but has no memory of how. Reyn is left astonished. * Just after the events of the Mechonis Core when the party first returns to Colony 6, Shulk will be unconscious in Linada's lab. When Linada is not around (this can only take place at midnight), Melia can repeatedly speak to the unconscious Shulk for some very interesting dialogue regarding her feelings towards him, and also receive a large heart's worth of affinity. It appears that Melia was going to do something to the unconscious Shulk, perhaps a kiss, but she would later be ashamed had she not stopped herself. See animated image, but it contains spoilers. * Melia appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U. Gallery Melia.png|Melia Melia concepts 1.jpg|Concept art Melia concepts 2.jpg|Concept art Melia brave.jpg|Melia in Brave outfit Melia retrieved.jpg|Melia in Retrieved outfit Melia hierax.jpg|Melia in Hierax outfit Melia stella.jpg|Melia in Stella outfit Melia lancelot.jpg|Melia in Lancelot outfit Melia rafaga.jpg|Melia in Rafaga outfit Compilation Armor Melia.jpg|Compilation of Melia's armor Melia Battle Tactics C.jpg|Melia - Battle Tactics Category:Characters Category:Playable Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Protagonists Category:High Entia Category:Alcamoth Category:Pages with spoilers Category:Melia